Sonos Products

I agree with both Byron and Larry above. For $450 (the price of the Bridge + ZP90), you get an incredible device and experience -- one which really makes music widely available in new, often unexpected ways. It's really great.

And I'll heretically suggest that the sound you end up getting from this-- even with fresh lossless files, doing everything right -- roughly approximates that of a $500 CDP.

I've got about $2k in 'improvements' to the basics - Cullen mod, a Monarchy DIP and NM24 Dac, good cabling and power, and again, I'd say that cost/value/performance is about equal to $2500 worth of 'real' CDP/DAC gear. Which is to say, it sounds just fantastic.

IMO you can definitely get there with Sonos...but it's arguably not its highest and best use. YMMV.

I do wish Sonos would do a good player unit. Their interface is really stellar, especially in terms of engaging spouses, the rest of the family, and guests.

To be able - while seated at dinner -- to call up a Lou Reed Pandora Radio station because your guests mentioned liking that sound, or to shuffle play through your own Reed collection...without them even knowing you pushed any buttons? How is that not worth $450?

Agreeing with soundgasm

I have sonos playing through cullen modified PS Audio dac and PS Audio preamp and wyred4sound st-500 amp (a bunch of work on the cabling side also). It is very good and definitely audiophile quality.

Just to add.......I was not knocking the Sonos at all.
And as people have mentioned above the ease of use and build quality for the asking price are top notch.

My point is if you do have a "main" system I think it is fine the way it is. It is the funnest piece I have had in a long time. Yes you can add a DAC, and it is known about the jitter, but if you are using it as a "radio" type player it is fine.

By the way I have added a zone bridge 100 as a signal sender and have had a signal as far away as 80 yards from my computer in the basement of my home! (ZP 100 to a ZP 100 to a ZP 90)

How cool is building a fire near the woods with a scenic view of a river and listening to a classic rock station from London!

I will chime in here too. I have several ZP80s around the house for convenience and overall usage they are fantastic. In my main rig, I use a ZP80 into a Monarchy DIP then into a PS Audio DAC 3, then on to my Cary SLP-03 preamplifier and McIntosh MC252 amp. The results are fantastic. When I compare a CD ripped in AIFF format to the original CD into that same front end using a Lexicon RT-10 as the transport instead of the Sonos.......hell if I can tell the difference!

My current setup has me wondering if I should swap the Sonos/Monarcy/DAC 3 for the newer PS Audio PWD with Bridge. Could it get any better?!

I have a Cullen modded Sonos, Antipodes cable, Peachtree Nova and am delighted with the sound quality. A friend has a modded Sonos and in sound tests it faired very well compared to his reference ($30k) system.

Don't underestimate how good Sonos can sound.